The National Library of Medicine approaches its third century with two major commitments to science and society – to serve as a platform for discovery and a pathway for engagement. We propose to do for data what the NLM has done for the literature, making data discoverable, actionable and preserved. We renew our commitment to engage with our users in ways and places that support their work of discovery, care, and self-management. We will prepare the workforce for an era of data-powered health, ensuring through our university training programs that the next generation of biomedical informatics and data scientists devise the methods and strategies to transform data into discoveries for health.

The NLM recognizes its diverse constituencies, including biomedical informatics and data science researchers, biomedical researchers, clinicians, librarians and patients. We recognize that as the environments of care migrate from the hospital and clinic to the home and community, so to must the library and its holdings. We remain committed to preserving the history of medicine and health, not simply for protection but as a valuable resource for discovery and innovation.

Speaker bio: Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PhD, is the Director of the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The NLM is the world’s largest biomedical library and the producer of digital information services used by scientists, health professionals and members of the public worldwide. She assumed the directorship in August 2016. Dr. Brennan came to NIH from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was the Lillian L. Moehlman Bascom Professor at the School of Nursing and College of Engineering. She also led the Living Environments Laboratory at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, which develops new ways for effective visualization of high dimensional data. Dr. Brennan is a pioneer in the development of information systems for patients. She developed ComputerLink, an electronic network designed to reduce isolation and improve self-care among home care patients.

Dr. Brennan was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (now the National Academy of Medicine) in 2001. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the American College of Medical Informatics, and the New York Academy of Medicine. She received a master of science in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Brennan is also an AMIA member.

Tuesday, November 7, 7:00 a.m. – 8:15 a.m.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is at the forefront of the administration’s health IT efforts and is a resource to the entire health system to support the adoption of health information technology and the promotion of nationwide health information exchange to improve health care. Dr. Rucker will offer an update on current and planned activities and initiatives, as well as public policy.

Speaker bio: Dr. Don Rucker serves as the national coordinator for health information technology. He previously worked as a clinical professor of emergency medicine and biomedical informatics at the Ohio State University and Premise Health, a worksite clinic provider, where he served as chief medical officer.

Dr. Rucker started his informatics career at Datamedic Corporation where he co-developed the world's first Microsoft Windows based electronic medical record. He then served as chief medical officer at Siemens Healthcare USA. Dr. Rucker led the team that designed the computerized provider order entry workflow that, as installed at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, won the 2003 HIMSS Nicholas Davies Award for the best hospital computer system in the U.S. Dr. Rucker has served on the board of commissioners of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology and Medicare's Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC) and has extensive policy experience representing healthcare innovations before Congress, MedPAC and HHS.

He has practiced emergency medicine for a variety of organizations including at Kaiser in California; at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he was the first full-time emergency department attending; at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Presbyterian and Pennsylvania Hospitals; and most recently at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center.

Dr. Rucker is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine with board certifications in emergency medicine, internal medicine and clinical informatics. He holds a Master’s degree in medical computer science and a Master of Business Administration, both from Stanford. Dr. Rucker is also an AMIA member.